“. . . I dined at the London Tavern last night and there were eight Ministers of State and all the India directors, and secretaries and under-secretaries and fellow-servants of all descriptions without end, in all about 200, but the devil a bit of Turtle! upon which I thought little Kensington* would have cried. Sheridan and I were for crying ‘Off! off! off!’ and damning the whole piece on account of the absence of the principal performer. I sat opposite to Morpeth,† and I made him blush and laugh and almost cry all at once. I swore it was the beggarly budget that frightened the directors out of giving their masters turtle. My comrogues laughed, and the directors did not half like the joke. . . . You see my friend Mr. Howorth has been adding to the amusements of Brighton races by fighting a duel with Lord Barrymore. His lordship was his adversary at whist, and chose to tell him that something he said about the cards was ‘false;’ upon which Howorth gave him such a blow as makes the lord walk about at this moment with a black eye. Of
* The 2nd Lord Kensington. † Lord Morpeth [1773-1848], afterwards 6th Earl of Carlisle, represented India in the new administration. |
| 1806-08.] | FOX’S LAST ILNESS. | 79 |
